Valley of the Temples Waterfalls

Remnants of tropical storm Ela were set to batter the islands this weekend. Heavy rains forecasted. Great for exploring waterfalls. A sucker is born every minute.

Where’s the water?

Met up with Chris and Gen for our waterfall exploration in a Windward neighborhood. Barking dogs and inquisitive neighbors were our only company walking on the dry stream bed.

Tree fungi

Fallen trees criss crossed the stream bed.

Hau trees

Climbing and weaving through the tangled thickets.

Ginger shampoo

Now all we need is water. Where is the water?

Follow the fence

Flashbacks to the KST and WST.

Mossy rocks

Sitting stones gather a lot of moss.

Drainage ditch

Too many spider webs to crawl inside. The stream bed eventually dumped us to a water tank where we saw low hanging clouds covering the mountain tops which resulted in a few sprinkles. Not enough. But the heat was on full blast. All day.

Shortcut

We pushed our way up to the ridge to get a glimpse of the promised waterfalls.

Bushwhacking

Lots of uluhe ferns to wade through today. Fun, fun, and more fun.

Ocean view

Looking out towards Kaneohe Bay and Mokoli’i or Chinaman’s Hat.

Chutes

The waterfalls on this side do not flow unless the mountains get a good soaking from Mother Nature. We were banking on the heavy rain. Little did we know that the bank was closed this weekend.

Floaters

We followed the ridge down to the stream where ripened mountain apples were so abundant they were falling off the trees.

Waterfall #1

The stream lead us to our first waterfall.

Group photo

The waterworks were not on full blast. But it was still a good show.

Cooling off

One way of shaking off the heat.

Downstream

We followed the stream down, hoping it would lead to the other two waterfalls. No such luck.

Blue skies

What happened to the rain?

Tracking

We had to bushwhack up through a dense jungle of uluhe ferns to get back on the ridge. The heat and humidity were stifling almost to the point of heatstroke.

Going down

Chris making his way down to the stream.

Waterfall #2

We followed the bend in the stream and it lead us to our second waterfall.

Group photo

Wishing it would rain.

Roping down

We had to contour around a small waterfall.

Bonus waterfall

This waterfall.

Mountain

We made our way up the ridge again with the resonating tones of the brass bell coming from the nearby Byodo-in temple.

Down

Chris and Gen making their way down, mindful of the false drops.

Waterfall #3

Group photo at the last waterfall.

Downstream

We followed the stream down to make our way out.

Tire swingers

Our afternoon amusement.

Beating the bushes

Chris found a thick branch and used it to beat a trail back to the ridge.

Spot of tea

Relaxing at the gazebo. We didn’t want to leave.

Back on the road

We retraced our steps back to the water tank and dropped back down into the dry stream bed.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Unfortunately, I have been asked not to disclose the location of this waterfall. However, with some digging around you can find the location through the name of the falls. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

Thanks for dropping by and glad you enjoyed the posts. Sorry as I told others, I have been asked not to disclose the location of the site. But with some digging, you can find this on your own through just the name of the falls. Hope this helps and hope you find it!

Aloha Kenji… I’ve been reading about koolaupoko chutes for awhile and I went three times to try and find them and got lost. I understand the importance of secrets but if u would email me the general area that will be great and I’ll try to find it… I believe it starts by this gated community dead end by ahuimanu but not too sure. Lmk… thanks

Aloha Duane,
I emailed you the general location. However, the falls generally don’t make a show unless during a period of heavy rain and watch out for flash flood conditions as well. I think it took us around six hours plus round trip as some areas were heavily overgrown and we were taking our time. We only explored the chutes that we could see that were flowing. Stay safe and have fun.
Mahalo

Hey Kenji, so I was following some leads to finds these certain waterfalls and I was lead to your page, the waterfalls look very similar to a ko’olaupoko chutes wondering if they’re the same and if I could get directions trying to find new places to explore. I would greatly appreciate it ! -liz

Aloha Ann,
Thanks, the general area is in the Valley of the Temples area. The chutes are not flowing unless the area gets a good soaking, you can see it from the road before you hike in. Be respectful of the neighbors and exercise discretion, courtesy and common sense.
Mahalo

My name is Alexandra and I moved to Oahu 9 month ago. I keep following your blog and it is honestly one of my favourite so far out of all.
I adore hiking no matter if that a ridge or waterfall hike.

I would like to ask if there is any chance you could share with me the area where the trail starts?
That would be super great especially because when it is rainy my only favourite thing to do is chasing falls and these chute ones are calling me bad! I just don’t wanna end up someone’s backyard and bushwack all the way there!